Franklin Bee Club Monthly Meeting Oct 2011

Today we travelled south to meet with our friends at the Franklin Bee Club for the monthly meeting. The weather was stunning, no rain and no wind… fabulous

There was a great turn out, with car park full and overflow parking area.

Just having a bit of a catch-up and chat before the meeting…it was good to meet some of our new supporters of “Kiwimana” face to face. President of the club, Peter started the meeting with a warm introduction of new members and visitors. Peter mentioned the fact that the weather has seen spring flowers blooming and that the bees are already buzzy.

Peter going over the order of business for today… we covered DECA, apiary rules, New Zealand Beekeeping book “Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand 4th Edition” by Andrew Matheson and Murray Reid (which the club sells for $40 each)

A great guide especially written for kiwi beekeepers, keeping bees under New Zealand conditions.

We then went on to inspect the clubs hives, the hives were down to three hives this meeting and at the end of the day down to two.

The remaining hives were both strong hives, splits could probably be done with these hives in the future. Matt demonstrated how to do a sugar shake to count varroa mites in the hive and Peter also showed the group how to extract drone brood to check for mites. Peter used a Capping Scratcher tool to pick up several drones at the same time. Both hives had small numbers of mites, which was great to see.

After the meeting we invited a few members to a nearby cafe, which wasn’t as nearby as we expected and we got a little lost. Sorry everyone We had a good time and discussed bees and gardening and then we all headed home, but not before we took a photo on the cafe display sign.

Gary enjoys designing new kiwimana products which we sell through our on-line shop. He is passionate about saving the Bees and encouraging urban beekeeping. Gary loves to write about issues that affect the Bees and our environment. He is also into tramping/walking in the beautiful New Zealand bush.